snapshots | day two in oslo

21 November 2014

day two started out with an early hangover, and an extra-super expensive breakfast from the world's most reliably expensive coffee shop. we took our drinks to go and wandered slowly back up the way we'd stumbled home the night before, headed for the capital's key tourist hot spots; first stop was the national theatre and parliament house, a mere ten minute walk from the hotel. handy!

we then wandered up to the royal palace, and had ourselves a wee impromptu photo shoot amongst the prettiest yellow leaves we'd ever seen (sorry not sorry for all the leaf porn... it was all just so damn pretty!). the guards at the palace are not as professional as ours here in london, and were also very specific about how close you could get to their posts... grumpy guard is grumpy! displeased with the clear lack of joy among those in service to the royals, we blew raspberries at them, and went on our way.

from there, we headed to the fjord. shame about the weather, because with all the low cloud and rain, we could barely see two metres in front of our faces. gutting really, as we'd planned to do a fjord tour after hearing such great things about it from friends who have been before (in the summer, i might add)... oh well, harden up, so they say.

we bought our tickets and went off to kill some time in the fortress until our departure time. once out on the fjord... freezing. absolutely freezing. and wet, let's not dismiss how utterly wet it was. and, we had the company of some incredibly loud italians who wouldn't shut the eff up long enough for us to be able to hear a damn thing that was being said by the tour guide. the tour lasted two of your great norwegian hours. an hour and a bit in, we went inside. yep - there was an inside. did i not mention that? oh. initially we sat outside thinking we'd see more. *staring face emoji* we didn't.

once back on solid ground, we headed for vigeland sculpture park, as pretty much everyone who knew we were headed to oslo told us to go there. their exact recommendation was "you have to go to that weird sculpture park while you're there," so naturally, we did. i honestly don't think that "weird sculpture park" really gives this place justice... i mean, from the website: "vigeland park is a result of one man's artistic obsession and a lifetime of work dedicated to the human form. the park contains 212 (!?!??!!) bronze and granite sculptures created by norwegian sculpture gustav vigeland."

it's a sight to behold, that's for sure. i mean, there are hardly words to describe. we wandered, not quite sure why, around the park for probably far too long, before we decided to retire to our warm room for some recharge and to debrief from our weird day. when hunger called, we headed across the road to the infamous illegal burger where we continued the tradition of not eating norwegian food. although i suppose food that is famous in norway counts as norwegian food? well, in this case it must.